Chinese character for paper

纸 means paper; compounds add the context. On its own, it names the material; 报纸 means “newspaper,” and 纸币 means “paper money.”

In 一纸公文, 纸 counts a written document rather than naming its material. Read the whole phrase to see which sense fits.

Why does 纸 have a silk radical?

Its left part 纟 is the simplified silk component, or radical.

The Chinese dictionary Shuowen Jiezi, compiled in the Eastern Han, defines 紙 as a thin mat of floss and analyzes it as 糸 plus 氏. That early entry links the character to fibers; it does not mean all paper was made from silk or establish when the character first appeared.

A paper map from a Western Han tomb shows the material existed before Cai Lun’s method. Han frontier records show paper was mostly used for wrapping while wooden slips remained the main writing medium. The improved method associated with Cai Lun is dated around 105 CE; that milestone is not paper’s first appearance.

Should I use 纸 or 紙?

Use 纸 for simplified Chinese and 紙 for traditional Chinese.

Simplified Chinese is commonly used in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia; traditional Chinese is common in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Follow the written standard of the passage and its audience; changing only this character is not a script conversion.

As of 2026, regional standards, operating systems, and fonts can affect how Han glyphs are drawn. Those stroke differences do not make 纸 and 紙 the same encoded character.